Join host Alex Chapman with special guests Buck Shelford & Michaela Blyde as they review the Semi-Finals of RWC 2019 - All Blacks v England - South Africa v Wales. VIDEO/Spark Sport/RWC/Mark Mitchell/SNTV/AP/Photosport/Gettyimages
By Andrew Mehrtens for the UK Times
If England play like they did against the All Blacks in the final on Saturday then I would say the World Cup is theirs. It is hard to see anybody beating them but the only team I could see staying with them areSouth Africa. New Zealand could at their best, but the Springboks' size and physique means that they can handle that side of the game. They will have to be immense, though, because that was the best England performance I have seen. Richie McCaw said he thought it was the best performance he had seen from any team for a long time and he has been involved in a few himself — that is high praise.
They took the initiative even before the start. I had a debate with Matt Dawson in the Radio 5 live commentary booth about the England response to the haka. He said he did not like it because it was focusing on the wrong thing but my view is that England took control of the situation. They responded in a way that they knew they were going to but the All Blacks didn't. Even the time it took to take off their tracksuits will have given them a feeling of control and initiative and that was borne out by the five furious minutes that followed.
England players look on while New Zealand players perform the haka. Photo /Getty
The directness was also a difference. The All Blacks forward runners usually have two or three guys around them who can receive the ball and there is often a little interplay. That is good but it means sometimes they can have less momentum. The All Blacks got the ball, started accelerating and then looked for an option to pass. That is not just flying headlong into contact, which is what we saw from Billy Vunipola. Ben Youngs's perfect timing meant he got the ball at pace and they got front-foot ball and it flowed from there. Vunipola and others were hitting with an incredibly energy.
I hope we keep this loss in perspective in New Zealand and that we are big enough to take our hats off to a fine performance. Teams celebrate beating the All Blacks more than any other team but this tournament is not just about them. Four teams went out last week, two more at the weekend. We're just part of the disappointed army that grows as the tournament progresses.
It is actually hard to rate the New Zealand performance purely because England were so dominant. It was similar to the week before when it was hard to judge Ireland because the All Blacks did not let them in. On Saturday the All Blacks were chasing the initiative, if not the game, right from the start. It was all about England, about their defence, their attack and their pressure. We are used to seeing New Zealand sides finish both halves strongly and pull themselves out of holes, so I was not stressed by the margin in the first half. It was the zero. The All Blacks were not threatening the line and looked like a team who deserved zero. That is not being unduly harsh on them. They just they ran into a team who absolutely smacked them.
